


Unplanned

by JessiRomantic



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Angst, Break Up, Developing Relationship, F/M, Falling In Love, Fluff, Growth, Past Hermione Granger/Ron Weasley, Personal Growth, Post-Break Up, Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-17
Updated: 2021-01-17
Packaged: 2021-03-17 04:40:48
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,989
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28719003
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/JessiRomantic/pseuds/JessiRomantic
Summary: When Ron Weasley breaks her heart, Hermione Granger finds support in unexpected places
Relationships: Hermione Granger/Theodore Nott
Comments: 40
Kudos: 141
Collections: Magic Begins From Within - A Dumbledore's Armada Flash Fest Challenge, RAREHPBINGO





	Unplanned

**Author's Note:**

  * In response to a prompt by Anonymous in the [Magic_Begins_From_Within](https://archiveofourown.org/collections/Magic_Begins_From_Within) collection. 



> Written for TakingFlight48 and kiwi05622's _Magic Begins from Within_ Flash Fest.
> 
> My prompt was _Say I Love You More_
> 
> I'd like to thank my alphabet Charlie9646 for their hard work on this.
> 
> _Dedicated to Mr Romantic, my Theo._

**January 13th, 2002**

“There is nothing for me here anymore.” Ron’s words cut through Hermione’s heart harsher than the chill of the January evening.

“But, I thought…” she started, unsure where she expected the sentence to end.

“Things haven’t been right for a while, Hermione,” Ron said, eyes cast down to his fingers playing with a loose thread on his jumper, shifting in his seat uncomfortably.

Ron was right, of course. But Hermione had a plan, and this was not a part of it. “Maybe when I graduate Uni in the summer -”

“No! I’m sorry. I just… you’re my best friend, Hermione, but we shouldn’t be more excited about playing hide and seek in a hotel room than we are about having sex.”

Hermione flinched. His words slashing open another wound in her already breaking heart. She had been having similar thoughts for a while but was not willing to admit it. She was willing to make sacrifices. Sex did not have to define a relationship; it was fine that they acted more like friends than lovers. She watched her housemates moving around the kitchen. The soft, golden light from the window flooding the small paved garden. 

“But, I… I thought you wanted the same as me,” Hermione choked out. 

Hermione knew that their relationship was not ideal, but she had a plan. A meticulous schedule for her life. Meet the love of your life at eighteen, married by twenty-two, first child by twenty-five. It did not bother her that they argued more than they probably ought and that they built each other up to knock each other down. She could live with that. 

The sad smile on Ron’s face told her everything. He _did_ want everything she wanted, just not with _her_ . “You’re my _best friend_ , Hermione. That will never change.” Standing from the rusted garden chair, Ron placed a gentle kiss on her forehead before walking back into the house.

Hermione took five deep breaths. She could feel the wet burn of silent tear tracks on her cheeks and wiped furiously at them before following him.

**June 6th, 2003**

Hermione exhaled a sigh of satisfaction as she looked at the small double bedroom. It was not much, but it would do. 

Hermione was grateful for the step forward. Piecing herself together after the devastation of losing Ron, and by association Harry and Ginny, had been the hardest thing she had ever done. The PTSD from the war hit her at full force; adding the pressure of the final year of a degree, it was crippling. She was never entirely sure how she got through it all.

Her life was following a new plan now, and it was a difficult lesson for her to learn.

“All set?”

Hermione turned to a beaming Susan Bones. “Yes, I think so,” she replied.

Hermione would forever be thankful for bumping into the ex-Hufflepuff in Diagon Alley a few months after the split. Her relationship with Harry and Ginny had become awkward and she found Susan an unexpected ally. When she mentioned that Hannah was moving out of their flat and offered Hermione the spare room, it felt natural to accept.

“Excellent!” the curvy blonde exclaimed. She flipped her long ringlets over her shoulder, “Time for a celebratory glass of wine, I reckon.”

Hermione chuckled and nodded her agreement.

**5th September, 2003**

The Leaky Cauldron was so packed they could barely move. Every parent in Wizarding Britain was celebrating their freedom from their school age children. Hermione grinned as she watched Susan part the throngs of patrons. She was always amused that for a Hufflepuff, the woman was never scared to throw an elbow or two.

“Two Firewhiskies,” Susan said, levitating the glasses of amber liquid toward Justin and Hannah, “two g&t’s,” she listed, floating one of the glasses to Ernie while keeping another for herself, “and an apple juice for the human incubator,” Susan quipped, throwing a heavily pregnant Pavarti a cheeky grin.

“Excuse me,” a deep male voice came from beside Hermione. “Is this chair being used?”

Hermione turned and was shocked to see the slender figure of Theodore Nott. “Erm… No,” she replied. The man was handsome. Tanned skin, deep chocolate brown eyes, cropped fair hair.

“Okay, thanks,” he said, before wrapping a large, well manicured hand around the back of the chair and walking over to a table with his friends.

Hermione felt her world shift.

It was terrifying.

**13th September, 2003**

Hermione fidgeted with the neckline and then the hem of the red dress she had bought for her date. It was a simple above the knee tea dress with a v neck. Her wild hair was piled in a high ponytail with tendrils framing her face. Slipping on a pair of peep toe heels, she walked out of her bedroom and into the living room.

“Very nice!” Susan exclaimed when she saw Hermione. “Theo won’t be able to keep his eyes off you.”

“Why am I doing this again?” the whine in her voice made Hermione wince slightly. “I don’t even know if I like him.”

“Because I have never seen anyone get so riled up about the Statute of Secrecy before,” Susan deadpanned.

Hermione thought back to the week before when she had been in a heated discussion with the benefits and detractions of having the legislation in place. Her blood boiled just thinking about it.

“See, you have to admit it turns you on a little bit.”

“Fine.” Hermione said. “One date.”

**18th October, 2003**

The door of Theo’s flat slammed shut behind them. Hermione unsteadily kicked off her heels as Theo made quick work of unbuttoning his shirt. Giving up halfway, he tugged it over his head and moved in to kiss her roughly. His stubble unfamiliar against her smooth skin as his large hands roamed her body.

The date the month before had been tepid. All the fire and passion from their discussions in the bar reduced to smoke. Nott had owled her a few times since, surprising Hermione at how interested he was to meet again. She had ignored them all, denying any spark between them.

When they had bumped into each other in Diagon Alley and he asked her on a date she had agreed with the full intention of sleeping with the ex-Slytherin. They had spent the night bar crawling and chatted all night about everything from politics, to art, to Muggle cinema before heading to his flat in Knockturn Alley.

Theo’s mouth at her neck pulled Hermione from her reflections, one of his hands on her bum beneath her scandalously short denim skirt and the other tugging sharply at her curls.

“Why do you never let your hair down, Granger?” he asked, pulling it down.

He was soon dragging her across the flat and to his bedroom where he made quick work of shedding them both of their clothing. He entered her, roughly. A primal feeling that lived in her bones told her that something irreversible had happened.

After a few strokes of his hips, he paused. His chocolate brown eyes wide with panic and embarrassment. “I… er… I think I’ve had a bit too much firewhisky,” Theo confessed. Hermione tampered down the disappointment with such a promising start.

Why did things never go to plan?

**December 5th, 2003**

“Really,” Susan said, hands on the curve of her hips. “That poor boy.”

Hermione looked over at her flatmate guiltily as she shooed Theo’s long eared owl from the window sill, “Oh, leave it.”

“I just don’t understand, Hermione. Why don’t you give him a chance?” she asked. “He’s clearly into you,” she said as she listed things off on her fingers, “he’s good looking, and he challenges that big brain of yours. What else are you waiting for?”

Hermione didn’t have an answer. Not one that Susan would accept, anyway. How could she tell her friend that the reason she was avoiding Theodore Nott was because she was trying to protect herself. That ever since she had left his flat all those weeks ago that her mind had been in overdrive. That all she wanted was to go back there. That she was terrified she might be opening her heart up to someone again. She had just begun to heal from Ron, she did not want to be broken again.

**20th December, 2003**

Hermione stood awkwardly next to Theo, waiting for his friends to arrive at his flat. It had taken a week for her to gather the courage to send him an owl after the conversation with Susan. She did not know what it was but after that first meeting in early December, something clicked. Like a lightbulb was switched on and she could see clearly for the first time.

Her boyfriend looked over at her, there was something so open and warm in his deep brown eyes as they darted around her face, “You should let your hair down,” he said. “I like it down.”

Hermione was not sure why his words had such power, but she nipped to the bedroom to unpin the simple updo.

**29th December, 2003**

“We should be heading home,” Theo said, easily, to their dinner companions. They had visited Cambridge for the evening to meet with one of Hermione’s Muggle friends from University.

“Oh, of course,” her friend, Lara, said. “You have to be making your way back to central London.”

“Yes,” Hermione agreed, “and we don’t want to miss the last train.”

After goodbyes and promises to do this again sometime, Hermione and Theo made their way to the nearest dark alley to apparate back to London. Hermione sped ahead of him, keen to be back in the warmth of his flat. She glanced behind her and what she saw made her breath catch and her heart skip. In the alley, he was half in shade with only the moonlight illuminating features. His short, fair hair looked almost silver in the light and his chocolate eyes were bright with mischief.

Hermione Granger knew at that moment that she was falling in love with Theodore Nott.

That was not a part of the plan.

**31st December, 2003**

“You can’t hide here forever, you know,” Susan said from the doorway. “I don’t understand what’s wrong. Everything is going well, right?”

“Yes, it is but -”

“Well, then, get your pretty little backside to Theo’s flat or I’m leaving without you. I’m not going to pass on an opportunity to party with Slytherins.”

Hermione sighed and grabbed her beaded bag before giving herself one final glance over. She was wearing a fitted velvet dress with simple black sandals. She had her hair pulled off her face in a loose chignon with a barrette clip holding it in place. The look was simple, yet elegant.

“Alright,” she said.

When they landed in front of the now familiar door to Theo’s flat, Susan squeezed her hand. “Whatever it is, it will be fine.”

Hermione could only nod before letting them both in. When she entered, Theo was waiting nervously in the hallway with a frown of concern on his sharp features.

“Are you okay?” he asked softly as he pulled her into an embrace. “I was worried about you when you went to your flat after dinner the other night.” She nodded into his shoulder and he pulled back. 

The expression on his face changed from one of concern to annoyance. Theo reached behind her. “Put your sexy hair down,” he said, deftly pulling the clip from her hair.

All at once it hit her. Theo was not Ron. Everything that Ron did not like about her, Theo admired. Her wild curls, her fierce intelligence, her headstrong will. She could trust this man with her heart and he would not break it.

Hermione smiled up at Theo. She did not mind that this was not a part of the plan. She could make new ones.


End file.
